Content marketing is commonly associated with using written text. That’s a big part of it, but it would be incorrect to think that’s all that it is. Images are also a big part of content and not just cheesy stock photos. If you have nice infographics, wouldn’t this technically be classified as a picture?
Similarly, content marketing video is an effective form of building trust and credibility with your audience. If a picture speaks a thousand words, then videos can speak millions, being several frames a second. But due to the advent of TikTok and other short-form video options, you don’t even need long videos now to make an impact on your viewers. Let’s dig into a bit more on how it works.
Content Marketing Video 3 Step Plan
Step 1: The Audience
It goes without saying that the first step and still the most important is to understand your audience. It’s far too easy to go into YouTube, hit “record now” then livestream your life. That might be what your audience wants to see… if you’re some big name celebrity. If you’re a nobody? Good luck getting any views on it.
People might swipe through short form videos mindlessly, but it doesn’t mean that they’re brain is switched off. They’re just able to quickly discard what they classify as not interesting or informative. People still want to feel smarter or entertained at the end of a video. If you can do that in 10-20 seconds, do it! But you have to know what makes your audience laugh and what they want to learn about too.
Step 2: The Style
Next is the process of trying to create your content with your own unique flavor. Again, a lot of video recording and uploading apps now make it easy to add captions, background music, filters and what not to create your own style. Maybe you don’t need any of those things to make a style that’s uniquely you. But you still need one. It has to be intentional as well.
It might seem difficult in a sea of videos. Doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to create one. Start by considering what style you like. Do the gaudy colours, gangsta music and attitude gel with you? Then don’t do it. You might take a bit more of a refined approach, soft lights and stillness could be your style. Experiment and see what your viewers resonate with.
Step 3: The Content
The content is arguably the least important piece of the puzzle – this is why I think so. Short form videos have a short lifespan. Once they’re viewed, the viewer has already moved onto the next thing. You need to be creating content regularly and it’s damn hard to create something hard hitting and powerful every single time.
Imperfection is the name of the game. That doesn’t mean you put rubbish out. It means to not get bogged down in perfect execution. It doesn’t exist in content marketing for video. Have an idea, create it, then get it out there. Measure the success, move on. As is the case, sometimes the videos you think do worst actually do the best.
Short form videos are great for content marketing. They help build trust, credibility and a connection with customers. Focus on your audience, your style and your content, in that order and you’ll be good in no time.